Apex Legends Season 11 – Escape is here with a new map, a new legend, a new gun, and a few buffs. Though not nearly as many buffs and nerfs to legends as previous seasons, one legend that did get a massive upgrade is Wattson. A legend that hasn’t received enough love from both the developers and the community, Wattson is integral to the APEX plot and is the queen of electricity. For new and returning players, here is how to play Wattson in Season 11.
Apex Legends is one of the world’s biggest Battle Royale games at the moment. With an exciting new season offering so much new content, let’s not forget about older legends, like Wattson. One of, if not the most forgotten legends, Wattson is still useful and fun, especially in Season 11.
Wattson Season 11 Buffs
Season 11 has been good to Wattson so far; Wattson mains rejoice! Wattson was the only legend to receive any buff this season. Here are the patch notes:
General
- Improved the reliability and responsiveness of placing Wattson’s Tactical and Ultimate in-world objects.
- Wattson can place her Tactical and Ultimate objects on valid surfaces above Wattson’s eye level (to a reasonable extent).
- General hitbox size increase, to compensate for the removal of low profile in the Legacy update.
Tactical – Perimeter Defense
- Increased damage on crossing a Fence by 33%. (15 to 20)
- Increased debuff duration on crossing a Fence by 100%. (1.5 to 3 seconds)
- Increased the time allowance to be hit again by a subsequent Fence effect by 100%. (0.5 to 1 second).
- Decreased recharge time by 50% (30 to 15 seconds).
- Increased placement range by 50%.
- Decreased the delay between Fences shutting off and reactivating after an ally passes through them by 60%. (1.0 -> 0.4 seconds)
- Wattson now moves at Unarmed-speed while readying/placing Fence nodes.
- Fence nodes can now be placed as soon as the weapon is readied, instead of waiting for the animation to finish.
Ultimate – Interception Pylon
- The Pylon output has been significantly reworked.
- Reduced the number of active Pylons Wattson can place from 3 to 1.
- The Pylon now lasts forever (instead of timing out after 90 seconds).
- The Pylon now has a pool of 250 Shields that can be distributed to nearby players, instead of effectively infinite Shields.
- Increased the Pylon shield recharge rate by 150%, and smoothed regen rate. (2/second -> 5/second, or more accurately: 1/0.5 seconds -> 1/0.2 seconds)
- When a Pylon is out of Shields, it no longer recharges players’ Shields, but can still zap incoming ordnance.
- Taking damage while regenerating Shields via the Pylon delays continued regeneration by 1 second.
- The UI on the ground and HUD elements now displays the amount of Shields that remain in the Pylon.
- Pinging a friendly Pylon will now display the percentage of Shields remaining in the Pylon.
- Pylon ordnance-zapping has been moderately reworked.
- Ordnance is now zapped when the Pylon detects that it would hit any surface within range and line of sight of the Pylon, instead of being zapped as soon as it comes within range.
- As a part of the changes, current issues where the Pylon doesn’t reliably zap ordnance (particularly concerning airstrike abilities, and ordnance that bounced off surfaces near the Pylon) should now be addressed.
Wattson Notes
So the patch notes can seem like just a bunch of numbers that are higher than before. To dissect all of that mumbo jumbo, for starters let’s talk about Wattson’s fences. They do more damage, they have a faster cooldown, they are placed quicker, and Wattson moves faster when placing them. The fences can also be placed farther and on more uneven terrains. All of that said, Wattson’s tactical feels fun and effective in combat and in preparing for combat.
Wattson’s Ultimate also received a big buff. Instead of having multiple Pylons out at once, there can only be one, but it will stay out indefinitely until replaced. The Pylons replace up to 250 shields instead of infinite and once it is out of shields to give, it will stay out blocking incoming projectiles. Wattson’s Pylon, paired with her Ultimate Accelerant passive feels incredibly useful for you and your squad during firefights.
Wattson Strategies
Now, with all of these updates to Wattson, how do I effectively use her kit? Wattson is a defensive legend, but she can (and should) be aggressive as well. Playing Wattson requires being proactive instead of reactive. Especially on the new Storm Point map, there are ample opportunities to place fences on orbital cannons, ziplines, and doorways. With Wattson’s new speed, players will constantly want to scan their surroundings and place fences where enemies could ambush them.
Players will want to constantly have at least one (if not two since they stack in her backpack thanks to her passive) Ultimate Accelerants in their possession. Wattson’s Ultimate is one of the best defensive abilities in the game, and players should always be ready to lay it down when the shooting starts. Follow your companions’ lead when entering battle, but make sure to give your followers (because you will be followed with Ash’s new passive) a hard time. Before looting, always prepare defenses.
As with any legend in Apex Legends, winning takes more than legend abilities. Practice you’re aiming, when to shield up, and where to engage your enemy to be successful. There are rumors that Wattson will receive another blessing from the gods in the form of a kit reworking in the near future, along with reworkings for Crypto. Stay tuned to find out more.
Apex Legends is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and PC.
